Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Kitchen Tour (Where the Magic Happens)

I want to show you pics of my kitchen, since it's where the vegan magic in our house begins. For instance, tonight in this very space, I invented a 10X5 Soy Curl Reuben--ten minutes to make and five to eat. No way could I have pulled this off in our living room, that's for sure.

Anyway, this kitchen of ours is a work in progress. We've been chugging along on it since the Spring, and it's just about done. When my shoulder un-freezes I'll probably paint the upper walls and then finish the lower cabinets.

East wall.

From L-R: Our friends in NOLA gave us the orange cabinet, which they got from the streets of NYC, the plant stand was $2 from a recent yard sale, the skinny cabinet with orange doors is from an old co-housing situation in VA, the stove is new, the green cabinet is from a salvage garage (I found three and had them powder coated green) and the white cabinet was discarded and pulled off the streets of NOLA--I stuck casters on the bottom so I could wheel it around.

The windows really do cast a morning glow.

The white work table thingy's been stripped, and it needs a nice glossy coat of paint to finish it off, but I love the knobs. I used to use it as a bed side table in our bedroom.

Let's Have a Pizza Party!

This here's a vintage Napco plate I bought to match my friend Cynthia's. Now even though I hardly see her, we can be pizza party twins for life.

Pencil cactus.

I found this can at an estate sale for a few coins. I needed something on the wall to hold utensils I use a lot, because the drawers were getting too cluttered and tangled with all this stuff.

Sink and Fridge Galley.

This area of the kitchen is really narrow and more like a galley. Our house is from 1908 and pre-dates refrigeration, so there's no really good spot for our fridge. At some point, I'm going to pull that ugly backsplash and put something better up there like penny tile or a hand-made mosaic. In the meantime, the kidney colored formica is ugly but tolerable.

Portland composts! Can you tell I like to drink outta jars?

We added the open shelving to make more space and because the hardware on the green cabinets got on Dazee's nerves. It's super easy to put stuff away after it's been washed in our tiny dishwasher.

Poor Ganesh lost his head again! :-(

You can tell I took a few of these shots on a different, sunnier day. These cabinets are just cheap ugly doors from the 80s, so I painted them, covered them in vintage fabric and sealed them with Envirotex so they'd be easy to keep clean.

The turquoise will be going either green or mango. Not sure, not sure.

Isn't that the best towel? It's a bit worn out, but since it came from my Grandma Millie's I'm happy to have it.

West wall.

We had this cabinet built by a local carpenter. The top is butcher block, the cabinets are salvaged and the wire rack was from a yard sale in DC. Up above you can see my favorite platters! These are real big, bigger than they look in the picture, for sure. I take them down when I make Ethiopian or to display stuff at bakesales. I'm tempted to glue powerful magnets to the walls to keep them suspended a bit higher.

Old dishes.

I did a lot of dish mosaics in NOLA, and these are the ones I couldn't bring myself to break. Before Katrina, we had a Salvation Army that held a special discount sale every month--boxes full of plates went for just a few bucks.

More of my Japanese Anthro collection.

Kitchen Kali, gifted to me from my old DC friends Kris and Alex.

Here's a better angle, so you can get the gist. Most of the room is very open, except for that area around the sink and fridge.

I'd love to see your kitchen, too! If you feel like giving your own tour, please post a link in the comments below so I can be sure to add it to the list.

I am inspired by your kitchen--so colorful, artful, and spunky! I also couldn't help but notice that fancy little blender you have that every cash-strapped vegan dreams about. This vegan will admire it from afar :)

oh yes, that. i bought it during vegfest last year, when they had a deal. i panicked for two days before dropping the cash. it wasn't an easy purchase, but i'm so glad i got it--i use it at least once a day for blending or grinding flour/flax seed. i figured it would even itself out, if it last for thirty years, the way they're meant to.

I love it! I like the scalloped cabinet thing where your Japanese guys are best. I'm super jealous that you found that plant stand for $2, it's perfect! I'm also pretty jealous of your stand mixer, I've had my eye on the light yellow one for ages but they're so expensive here.

they're expensive here too. my mom bought it for me when we moved into our old house in NOLA. i am in love with all things scalloped. this is pretty much my favorite kitchen i've ever lived in. don't be jealous of that stand, just keep your eyes out!

I'm not gonna lie I'm feeling quite a lot of kitchen envy right now! I love how much space you have , how bright and colourful everything is and your dish collection is epic! I'm also always in awe of American ovens, even the small one's seem so much bigger than the ones usually found in UK homes. I love the idea of a mosaic backsplash in the sink area too and that tea towel really is the awesomest!

So lovely and eclectic (especially love the fabric covered cabinet doors) - I have stove envy! You would not like to see pics of my kitchen - the ugly might jump through the sceen and injure someome. LOL on the blender angst. My husband bought me a Blend Tec a couple years ago for my birthday and I made him return it because I thought it was too spendy. I'm still pining away for it.

I love the way you put fabric on your cabinets and made all of the eclectic pieces work together in function and aesthetic. It's nice to know that your incredible meals come out of a human kitchen too ;-)

I was gonna do a kitchen thing next week but now I don't know — yours is so much more interesting. Mine in boring — much more boring than my Wis. kitchen.

I have smaller versions of your giant enameled platters that we used to use for camping plates. I love them and always wanted to get the big ones but never got around to it. Your kitchen looks nice and big which is great if you want it to be a gathering place — colorful, too so everyone feels happy when they're there. Thanks for sharing!

Your kitchen is so cute!! I love all of the green and orange - those are my dream kitchen colors, if we ever get rid of the peach and slate blue checkered tile that came with the house (no, really, someone did that to a floor).

thanks becky! what's under your floor? i should have ripped out our old linoleum when we first moved it, cuz i would have liked the sub floor painted way more than the dirty gray linoleum i put up with for over a year.

Your kitchen is so cute and fun. I love that even though there is so much going on, that it is organized and purposeful. My kitchen feels very dull and monochromatic now. I really love the fabric covered cabinet doors; great idea. And soy curl reuben? I just ordered my first (huge) box of soy curls, so that's nice inspiration.

I just love seeing into other people's kitchens! I long for the day when I have a full-sized kitchen again (we're living in a travel trailer while building). I love the fabric on the doors. My husband would never go for that. I'm obsessed with decoupage, and he kind of freaks out about it. LOL. Before we were married, I decoupaged my kitchen table with vintage ephemera and he tolerated it... and then asked to switch to his kitchen table when we set up our townhouse together. :-p

I'm not quite brave enough to do the bold colours like that, but it looks so nice!

your kitchen is so colorful and fun. love those cabinet doors. ours is such a cut and paste kitchen, nothing personal about it. i think i should reorg, fix it a bit and then do a tour. all that will definitely get some more creative juices going!

Thanks, Dynise! I remember commenting when I saw your new oven, 'cuz ours certainly looks similar. Ours is from Sears, but I don't remember if it's a Kenmore or what. Is your oven cobalt blue on the inside? If so, we must have the same one. This ones needs to be calibrated, 'cuz it's waaaay off. :--/

Your kitchen is so colorful and pretty! My kitchen is quite dark and boring. We don't have any windows in there (sob!) so it can be a little dungeony. Thanks for the tour! I hope your shoulder un-freezes soon!

Wow, your kitchen looks so beautiful and warm! I am jealous of all the color -- the kitchen in my latest apartment is honestly pretty drab. That is, with the exception of a certain rainbow dish towel that looks to be your dish towel's worse-for-wear twin! So weird.

You should get your kitchen featured in a magazine. I like it that much. I would love to have a kitchen like that when I get a house, but I don't have the talent necessary, or the money to hire someone to do it for me! Your dishes are wonderful.

What can I say that hasn't been said already (I just read all the comments.)? Love, love, love this post. Want to live there. So impressed with your cleanliness, tidiness, and sense of place/space. Just dreamy.

I just realized somehow I missed commenting on this post, even though I've admired it a few times! Your kitchen is so colorful & fun! I love the playful quality about it and how you have everything displayed. I especially like your Pyrex collection and those big platters for serving Ethiopian food. Where on earth did you find those? That's a great idea to suspend them higher with magnets. I can totally imagine you happily cooking away in there! :)